Flat-pack (Shenyang & Chengdu)

Tapping into the wealth of the affluent urban population has been a key feature of China’s economic development. Shot over 2 years in Shenyang and Chengdu, these photographs look at the wholesale remodelling of two Chinese city centres into hubs of commerce.
There are two aspects to the project which are presented here as diptychs:
A vivid, colourful series of photos that peek through the hoardings of the building sites, mixing the bright consumerist aesthetic of the hoardings with the reality of construction and demolition taking place behind. And the documentary-type photos which take a wider view of the streets, capturing the unsettling, often chaotic, limbo space that people have to negotiate during this massive upheaval of their homes, workplace and way of life.
Working on both an abstract and documentary level, the project captures a significant moment of change for these cities and their inhabitants.